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My mind is not the mathematical type. However at times I see life as a wife and mother as one large puzzle. A puzzle filled with many different shaped pieces and facets. Each area of being a wife and mother needs to fit together in some sort of organised manner, clipped in place like a 1000 piece puzzle.

Meal planning and preparation being one piece of the puzzle, keeping up with dishes being another, then there is the laundry piece, finances piece, quality time with the family piece, showering piece, hair cuts piece, homework piece and even little things become puzzle pieces like the getting out the door on Sunday mornings piece.

There are many problems that need to be solved when you have a family – and even when you are single! Just the problems to be solved seem to multiply when you have a family.

How can I organise my life so all the puzzle pieces fit together and my life runs smoothly in an orderly way and not in chaos?

I pray. Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed with a certain area in my life I try to remember to bring it before the Lord. The Holy Spirit gently leads and guides me on my path. For example, our bath times used to be very chaotic and exhausting. For years we tried to give all the children a shower or bath 3 nights a week. It was always right at the end of the day after tea when Luke and I were tired. The tea dishes often didn’t get cleaned because it took so long to bath every one. It would take a good hour or so to get everyone bathed and dressed for bed. Often Luke did this completely on his own because I have been either pregnant and feeding babies for so much of the last several years. Bedtimes were often pushed back later then we would like and it was getting to the point were ‘bath nights’ were causing us a great deal of stress.

I prayed to the Lord about it. I was instantly reminded of how during my childhood I only had a bath once a week. This may sound gross to some but it was just the way my parents used to do it. The only time I bathed more often was when I had been out with my dad doing sheep work on the farm or if I had gone to the beach. I showered more often when I reached puberty but throughout most of my childhood – one bath a week was it.

With this in mind Luke and I decided that we would do the same. We also decided to change their wash time to the morning so not to upset our already busy evenings anymore. In the morning (not too early) is when I’m feeling most energetic and bright and fresh.

So now every Saturday morning I give all five children a shower or bath and shampoo their hair. I will also check their toenails and clip any that are getting a bit long. During the week our two youngest daughters get sticky hair so we often give them a midweek bath – but I now do it in the morning after breakfast when I have the most energy.

Making a little change like this can really lift the organisation of our household and make it run smoother with less stress.

Beating the overwhelmed feeling all comes down to prayer and problem solving. If I am feeling stressed and overwhelmed by my day, I need to try to relax, take a step back and look at my problem from a strategic perspective.

What is it exactly that is causing me stress? It could just be the dishes that were left from the night before that is causing me so much work and setting my mornings back. If you are feeling overwhelmed by your life or job at home as a mum then just tackle one problem at a time. Lean on the Holy Spirit and ask the Lord for wisdom. He cares about the small details of our day and if you take time to listen, He will reveal to you the solutions to your challenges. No problem is too big or too small for our Lord Jesus.

Here are some areas which I’m feeling aren’t working as well as they could be and need some work and orgainisation in our house.

Dishes being left overnight

School lunches

Snacks

Dining table mess left overnight

Clutter on the kitchen floor and under the table left overnight

Mornings (I keep sleeping in!)

My Bedtime

After school (homework, chores AND piano practice AND tired children…)

Breakfasts

Gardening/watering plants and lawn

Car cleaning

Compost

Sunday mornings/little ones during church

Slowly slowing I WILL become organised!!

Are there any areas in your life and homemaking/mothering that are bothering you and causing you stress at the moment?

I pray that you can leave overwhelmed behind and find the organisation and peace you are looking for.

Blessings, Peta xo

Get my new ebook Yes You Can Lose Your Pregnancy Weight HERE. 87 Pages of tips, tricks and encouragement. Also included is 10 nourishing recipes and a copy of a whole week of exactly what I ate to lose weight.

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Hi all my lovely readers. Wow it’s been a busy couple of months for me. End of school year craziness, Christmas, and 6 weeks of summer school holidays. I don’t actually like business. I know many who thrive off it. My personality type screams for peace, quiet and slow. Otherwise my head gets cluttered and I have a tendency to get overwhelmed, brain fog and shut down a little. However I am slowly learning how to cope when life gets busy – I just keep rolling and don’t give into the stress and hope that a quieter time is around the corner when I can think…and write. Daily rituals that I have embedded into my life in recent years have helped me to cope better with stress too such as cups of tea, walking in nature, talking regularly and deeply with my husband, lists, daily prayer and journaling.

We got back from a lovely holiday 6 days ago. We were very blessed to have the opportunity to stay in my uncle and auntie’s holiday house which happens to be right at the most popular sea side location in the city! Luke and I vlogged one day of our holiday where we caught the tram which goes from the coast all the way into the city. We had a great family day out while we walked to the museum, mall and a guitar shop. Luke edits and does all the graphic design for our Youtube channel, he is very talented in this area!

I hope you enjoy! Blessings, Peta xo

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This year has been loaded with good things and also set backs. At the beginning of this year, instead of writing new years resolutions, I wrote a page of prayers that were on my heart. I cried out my heart to the Lord about these things daily all year long. I am deeply joy-filled to be sharing with you that many of those prayers have been answered.

I asked for someone to help me out with cleaning the house and baby-sitting as I could never seem to catch up on my workload at home and it was getting me down. – The Lord sent a lovely young Christian, home-schooled lady to come weekly and she has helped me clean the house from top to bottom. I feel so encouraged by this and she as become a great friend to me.

I asked for a large kitchen table particularly one painted white with a wooden stained top. And a dishwasher. – The Lord sent to us a local couple who custom built the exact table I was wanting that I saw at Harvey Norman for $3500. We paid only $450 for ours.

Our lease was not renewed at our rental house because the landlord wanted to renovate, which meant we had to move. Suddenly we were homeless. The Lord led us swiftly to a house only a few streets away. We were privileged to be shown through the house by the agent before it was even advertised. The new house has a dining area for our new kitchen table AND we were able to have a dishwasher installed in the laundry (only a few steps away from the kitchen).

I asked for wisdom and insight in dealing with my eldest sons constant aggressive behavior and mood swings. He was upsetting everyone in the house. We tried everything we could think of and were at our whits end (disciplines, spanking, time out, loss of privileges, earlier bed time, long talks, reward systems for good behaviour, more one on one time with him). I cried many tears over this. I was lead to discover he may have ODD (Oppositional Deficiency Disorder) And was reminded of an allergy test he had as a toddler which revealed he is allergic to wheat. I put him on a gluten and sugar free diet and within days he was back to his calm, happy self. The transformation in him has been amazing! I wish I had done this years ago. I might write a whole detailed blog post about this in the future.

I asked the Lord for a holiday. We had to spend our money shifting house and a holiday this year was looking like it wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t stop thinking about my Auntie and Uncles holiday house by the beach. I didn’t even know if they still had it or if someone was now renting it. I asked anyway – and they said yes! We can stay there! We are now getting ready next month to have a relaxing time away by the beach.

I asked for my mums healing for a condition she was suffering with. She told me last week that she feels the best she’s felt in years right now.

I always pray for the Lord to guide and lead me every day of my life in every area. I am completely surrendered to him and his will for my life. I have seen him provide for our family in amazing ways this year. He knows what I need and I have never been lacking anything. My life may not be fancy in any way – but it is certainly not lacking.

Thanks to everyone who supported my blog this year. Whether you liked a post on facebook or left a comment or just read a few articles. I really appreciate your feedback and every little bit counts and is noticed. I hope you are enjoying my new YouTube channel as well. Click here to check it out.

I’m excited for 2018 as I will be releasing my very first e-book. It is called ‘Yes You Can Lose Your Pregnancy Weight.’ And I pray it is a huge encouragement to many people. My goal for this blog from the very beginning when I started blogging back in 2012 is to encourage people, especially mothers, as they press on with the challenging and deeply rewarding task of parenting. I don’t make any money at all from blogging. I do it because I love it and I feel like I can help others with words of encouragement. However it does cost us over $100 a year to keep this sight online and by purchasing my e-book next year (hopefully in January) you will be supporting our family and the continuation of this blog.